Archive of films Lights in the Dusk / Laitakaupungin valot

Finland
2006, 78 min

Section: Horizons
Year: 2006

The third part of Kaurismäki’s trilogy about drifters (Drifting Clouds, The Man Without a Past) looks closely at the theme of loneliness. The hero of the story, an employee of a security firm, becomes involved with the beautiful ice maiden Mirja, who breaks his heart and draws him into major crime.

Synopsis

Screenwriter and director Aki Kaurismäki introduces the third part of his loose trilogy about drifters: while he told us a tale about unemployment in the film Drifting Clouds and portrayed homelessness in The Man Without a Past, the story Lights in the Dusk examines the theme of loneliness. The hero of the narrative is a man called Koistinen, who works the night shift as a guard for a Helsinki-based security firm. But then he ends up needing protection himself: the secure, daily routine of this taciturn man is severely disrupted by the arrival of the beautiful but ice-cold blonde Mirja, who breaks his heart and draws him into major crime. The other woman in Koistinen’s life is the inconspicuous Aila who wants to try and help him… A melancholic story about the quiet tragedy of human solitude, filmed in pure Kaurismäkian style. We will also detect inspiration from the silver screen in the unfeeling blonde Mirja, who rises to the surface from Hitchcock’s Vertigo.

About the director

Aki Kaurismäki (b. 1957, Orimattila, Finland) is one of Europe’s most distinguished directors; he is also involved in production via the company Villealfa, which he established with his brother Mika (also a director). In his stylised bitter-sweet tragicomedies, which regularly win awards at prestigious festivals, he focuses in particular on the fates of various outsiders and drifters from the fringes of society. Filmography (selection): Crime and Punishment (1983), Shadows in Paradise (1986), Hamlet Gets Business (1987), Ariel (1988), Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989), The Match Factory Girl (1990), I Hired a Contract Killer (1991), Bohemian Life (1992), Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana (1993), Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses (1994), Drifting Clouds (1996), Juha (1998), The Man Without a Past (2002), segments from the collections of stories Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet, (2002) and Visions of Europe (2004). A special screening of his films was organised during the Karlovy Vary IFF in 1992.

Contacts

The Match Factory
Domstrasse 60, 50668, Cologne
Germany
Tel: +49 221 539 7090
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.the-match-factory.com

The Finnish Film Foundation
Kanavakatu 12, 2nd floor, 00160, Helsinki
Finland
Tel: +358 962 203 00
Fax: +358 962 203 050
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.ses.fi

CinemArt, a.s.
Národní 60/28, 111 21, Praha 1
Czech Republic
Tel: +420 224 949 110
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.cinemart.cz

About the film

Color, 35 mm

Section:	Horizons

Director:	Aki Kaurismäki
Screenplay:	Aki Kaurismäki
Dir. of Photography:	Timo Salminen
Editor:	Aki Kaurismäki
Producer:	Aki Kaurismäki
Production:	Sputnik OY
Cast:	Janne Hyytiäinen, Maria Järvenhelmi, Ilkka Koivula
Contact:	The Match Factory, The Finnish Film Foundation, CinemArt, a.s.
Distributor:	CinemArt, a.s.

www:	www.lightsinthedusk.com